mussel

double post deleted.

The commissioning companies usually have a number of years exclusivity, the length depends on the individual contract. Concerto DSCH, Russian Seasons, Namouna started to show up in other companies' reps after the exclusivity ended. It may be another few years when Shostakovich trilogy starts to show up elsewhere outside ABT & SFB. I think there's not much overlap audience between Alley and NYCB to make performing the same piece the same period an issue. T&V & Allegro Brillant have been performed cross plaza at the same time.

Here is my prediction, just a prediction which could turn out to be just a wishful thinking/day dreaming for a NY season. My prediction is a 2-week season with 2 full lengths and a mixed bills program, Cinderella will end the run. It will dovetail with the Kennedy Center season.

The only must see program is Ashton's Patineurs on Oct 18 8pm, which is in conflict with Whalen farewell, and Oct 19.

Thanks for the reports, I was on the fence, now I'll save my pennies for the upcoming Mariinsky NY season. However, the LA Times has a more generous review: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/culture/la-et-cm-osipova-vasiliev-in-solo-for-two-20140726-story.html So the whole show finished in 75 minutes including intermission? How's the reaction from the audience?

I am thinking of going to Saratoga, how's the sightline in the orchestra section? How raked is it?

Meanwhile, add this to my list of complaints with the management of the Lincoln Center Festival. I first learned about this in an e-mail as I was getting ready to board a plane home from NYC. I tried to grab a ticket via my Smartphone, but their site wouldn't accept the Friends code they had sent. By the time I got home and could try again on a regular computer, it was "sold out." For special events like this, especially those that will go quickly, we should get a "heads-up" e-mail at least a few days before tickets become available. I guess that didn't occur to the LCF staff. I went and had no problem getting a stand-by ticket. The venue was only 65% full, there were more no-shows than people showing up for stand-by tickets.

Unless they have Bolshoi, Mariinsky, RB, POB, RDB and O&V on the roster with full orchestra, otherwise, I am not going to be bothered. I guess the time slot precludes ABT and NYCB from participating. It's a pain in the @$$ to get tickets, those who scored ticket didn't bother to show up because the tickets were so ridiculously cheap. They need a new pricing scheme.

Don Q and Spartacus are now available to download: Don Q Spartacus

I think any talks about her permanent move to Mariinsky are premature, a good part of the company will be in London at that time, they may just need some outside extra help. May be it's just my wishful thinking. If she were to move to Mariinsky I'd be very happy for her but sad that I wouldn't have much opportunity to see her. BTW, it's an evening performance, not a weekday matinee, take that, Kevin! Or we could take matters into our own hands and have both. We could chip in to buy a whole center parterre box and discreetly set up an video cam there. Many ABT performances are recorded and archived at NYPL Dance Collection but none of them featuring her as lead: http://nypl.bibliocommons.com/search?q="Part%2C+Veronica"&search_category=author&t=author

I remember that Bowman dancing the jester in NYCB Swan Lake broadcast in 2000.

Atta girl, Veronika!! So St. Pete still gets the A cast during the London tour.

Anna K and Carmen/Symphony in C sold out, LHH did not. But the Met has 4,000 seats including stand room, more than twice the size of most major European houses.

When the box office first opened the least expensive tickets were $28 (or £16 at current exchange rate) and they spread through out the house including orchestra (stall to you) and they were quite decent, not partial views. However, when the dynamic pricing took over, it became outrageous, the top price was $300 and they were all gone. Pricing scheme at the State Theater is not for procrastinators.

Standing rooms costing $25 are available starting at 10am on the day of at the box office only, no internet or phone sales.

There are plenty of excellent seats at $59 or below. Unless you want front row center in orchestra or 1st ring then you pay the top price, otherwise, the off-center to side seats are very reasonable priced and the best bang for the buck, they're also selling the 4th ring rows A & B right away.

Actually in 2002, when the company found itself in financial trouble again, there's a plan for ABT to become Kennedy Center resident company but that would sacrifice the company independence: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/04/arts/ballet-theater-signs-of-promise-amid-struggle.html and http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/12/arts/sponsor-spurns-ballet-theater.html "In June 2002 Mr. Grinberg (ABT board member & Movado president at that time) tried to lead Ballet Theater into becoming the resident company at the Kennedy Center in Washington. The plan could have brought the company financial stability, but it also would have required that it give up final control over its budget. Michael M. Kaiser, the president of the Kennedy Center, has been credited with saving Ballet Theater from bankruptcy when he was its executive director in the 1990's. Instead the board decided to remain independent and named Mr. Ranieri chairman. He had pledged $2 million to the company and vowed to help raise $30 million for the endowment over the next three years. Ballet Theater has about 50 trustees, most of whom seem to support Mr. Ranieri's leadership."

Possible cast changes as Kristina Shapran and Oksana Bondareva are no longer listed in Mik roster: http://www.mikhailovsky.ru/en/theatre/company/ballet/

Castings, synopsis, bios, and program notes are available to download as PDF file: Tsar's Bride Swan lake Don Q and Spartacus not yet available. Some orchestra prime seats just become available for 7/23 matinee at $300 each. Also, they may sell standing rooms on day of performance. ADA seats will be released to general public hours before the performance.

Date announced: 12/12 - 12/21/14, but no casting information yet. This will be the last BAM Nutcracker season, the production will move to West Coast afterwards.

I predict the company will bring Beauty to Canada, Raymonda and/or MSND to California.

I hope KM's involvement in Raymonda Div. is minimal and it's a precursor to a new full length version staged by Kolpakova. I don't hate Ann Marie Holmes version but I found it lacking, why go to Holmes when you have Kolpakova in-house. They're skipping Halloween, as they did last year. Hard to compete with the other festivities in town, I guess. Is Halloween really such an 800-pound gorilla you need to keep clear? Or ABT could turn lemon into lemonade by scheduling an one-time only Halloween-themed ballet like Giselle with Vishneva and Gomes, it'd finish at 9:45pm, and people still have plenty of time to go to a graveyard to be chased by real wilis. He got injured shortly after he joined Bolshoi and had a longish hiatus, may be he felt obligated to put in more time with Bolshoi after he recovered? Now that the due is paid, he may feel free to spend more time with ABT.

The 75th Anniversary banner is already up on ABT website with Gillian in T&V costume and Marcelo in Fancy Free sailor suit in front of the plaza fountain.

My crystal ball refused to work during the 2014 Met season but once the season ended, it finally comes thru, here's my prediction for the next Met season: Swan Lake New Sleeping Beauty Ashton Cinderella Bayadere R&J Othello Les Sylphides, T&V There's one more full length and some one-act ballets remaining to complete the list, I'll update the list when my crystal ball allows. Ashton Cinderella is no surprise, new production usually returns the next year, plus ABT will be doing it in DC this coming March. Many of the ballets in 2015 Met and fall seasons are considered as part of ABT heritage. Sir Kenneth staged R&J for ABT during his tenure as associate director. ABT is the first western company to stage the full length Bayadere. Many consider ABT's Les Sylphides as the definitive version as the last version personally supervised by Fokine with a Britten arrangement commissioned by ABT. And Balanchine created T&V for ABT. Also, the 10-year contract at the Met will expire at the end of the 2015 Met season. The contract usually renewed without much snafus in the past, and I hope the ongoing union negotiation at the Met doesn't complicate things for 2016 and beyond.

"Flesh and Bones" will premier January 2015: http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2014/04/24/starz-original-drama-flesh-and-bone-begins-production/257327/ I don't have Starz but I am thinking getting it just during the F&B run.